Predictive risk management is a blending of reactive and proactive strategies. Safety teams can uncover potential risks by examining data and making predictions.

For predictive risk management to work, your operation needs strong operational processes. You’ll also need historical data on which to base predictions. A strong understanding of human factors will help as well.

What Are KPIs?

KPIs, or key performance indicators, track performance in business, quality, and safety. Understanding and using KPIs is a crucial part of SMS.

SMS can track hundreds of data points, especially when using advanced SMS software. Use data tied to objectives and goals to get the most from your KPIs.

Selecting key indicators helps to focus on the outcomes. Looking at all the data can be overwhelming. Much of it will be irrelevant to measuring performance. Selecting the right indicators will save time and increase productivity.

What is Change Management

Management of change in aviation SMS is a formal process for facilitating changes in safety programs. Usually, this process is instigated when required changes are going to affect higher level, systems in the SMS. Smaller changes are handled with corrective actions.

What’s in a Name?

Identifying hazards is a big part of implementing a Safety Management System or SMS. Most of us assume that we know what a hazard is. It’s not a complicated word, we’re pretty sure we know what it means. No problem, right?

Problem is, hazard might be one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. Probably because a lot of definitions you’ll find say something like what Google tells us, “a danger or risk.” From which we could gather that a hazard and a risk are the same.

Despite the common usage of hazard and risk synonymously, when one digs deeper into hazards and risk, a common thread emerges regardless of industry. For those who’ve made safety a profession, hazard and risk mean two distinctly different things.